by virtue of the fact nelson mandela was south africa's first black president, president obama is the first black president, there is huge expectations for president obama. one of the tragedies of the obama presidency he has no one to work with. in the same way you had f.w. de klerk on the other side of the aisle who was willing to make a deal in the end with nelson mandela or at least come to the table, the president had much greater ambitions for parts of his presidency but has no one to work with. >> i think there's a lot of differences between how mandela became the first black president of south africa and united states president obama. one of the differences addressing directly your point. at what point we don't know, de klerk and his allies decided it was in their interest to make mandela's presidency successful for south africa. they didn't like it. they ran against him. but for the good of the nation, to have this great reconciliation, we need to make this work. i don't think that has happened with president obama. there are those that have said that no matter what, he can do